


Well I Think I Would for You.

by Shemagh



Series: The Strexcorp Files [3]
Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Adorable Cecil, Carlos is Human, Carlos is a Dork, Carlos is a Good Boyfriend, Cecil Is Not Described, Cecil Is a Good Boyfriend, Cecil is Mostly Human, Cecil is a Dork, Comfort, Fluff, Hospitalization, M/M, Protective Carlos, Recovery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-11
Updated: 2013-11-11
Packaged: 2018-01-01 05:04:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1040670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shemagh/pseuds/Shemagh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If you're looking for a fluffy Carlos/Cecil comfort fic following 'I'm Not Scared To Die, I'm A Little Bit Scared of What Comes After,' this is it. This story takes place about two weeks after the end of the aforementioned fic. I have not rated it yet because I don't know how far I'm going to run with it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Expectant

The sunrise was quieter than it had been all week as it began casting its glow into the faint clouds. They lit up in brilliant hues across the desert sky like tendrils, reaching out to seize the darkness and consume it.  A man sat cross-legged on a window seat in a darkened and sterile room, staring at the colors with wonder and excitement, a warm smile smeared across his face. He picked idly at his ID bracelet, then the hem of his pajama pants, ripping from the garment a bit of thread that had worked itself loose as he took it all in. His silent trance was broken before long by a flood of light and a set of footsteps. The man turned, his blissful expression changing to one of indifference, maybe even with a tinge of disgust, in the presence of the unexpected guest. He hung his head and rose very slowly with the assistance of the intruder and allowed himself to be walked back to his bed.

“I wish you wouldn’t move around the room so much on your own, Cecil.” Cecil’s face fell further and he sorely settled into the contemptible surface. “I know you’re restless, but if you keep removing these lines, you’re going to end up prolonging your stay, not that I mind the company.” The man snatched a few gauze pads from a nearby countertop and exposed the inside of his patient’s elbow, applying the pads to the crook of Cecil’s arm to staunch the blood flowing in lazy rivers from where an IV line had previously been feeding drugs into him. After a time, the man produced a roll of purple tape from the same counter and secured the gauze in place.

“I’m sorry, Steve. I felt ill and the night nurse seemed busy, so. . .”

“I bet you must feel awful right about now. Since you’ve been disconnected you haven’t received any pain medication in hours. Did you even sleep at all last night?” Cecil declined to answer the doctor’s inquiry entirely and snagged his blankets from the bottom of the bed, pulling them up over his bare feet to his hips, only half concealing his embarrassment as he winced from the pain in his torso and head.

The quiet man toyed with the ends of his pajama drawstrings as the other rummaged through a cupboard, tossing a white wrapped parcel by Cecil’s thigh on the narrow bed and returning to rest on a small stool he had removed from behind the bed with his foot in a smooth practiced motion.  He tore the paper face off the package, crumpling it up and throwing it toward the small waste bin beneath the countertop, only to miss the receptacle by a fairly shameful distance.

 “Damn! Almost made it that time. May I have your other arm, please?” Cecil offered the limb up reluctantly, flinching as the man wound a rubber strap tightly around his bicep and traced his now bulging veins with his gloved fingertips. “I know, Cecil. Just try to relax for me. These only hurt worse when you tense up like that. There’s a good sport.”

Cecil did his best to remain calm as Dr. Carlsberg slowly inserted the new IV into his arm, giving the device steady pressure and observing for blood. It was another success, much to Cecil’s relief. As much as he could not stand his doctor, at least the man knew how to hit a vein every time instead of chasing them around in his arm like so many of the nurses had to. He secured the IV to his arm with adhesive patches, connected him to a small grey machine mounted to a stand and pressed a few buttons to return it to a working state. It beeped back to life and Cecil immediately felt heavier as it shot painkillers into his body.

“That ought to take some of the edge off.”

Dr. Carlsberg flashed a bright light into each of Cecil’s eyes as he spoke, holding each of the man’s eyelids open so he could not reflexively squeeze them shut. He checked a few boxes on Cecil’s charts before helping the man forward and raising his shirt. He reattached the leads of his patient’s monitor, observing the numbers and runes that began to trail across the screen. The device made several bizarre noises, which Dr. Carlsberg attended to in turn, silencing the last alarm when he clipped a hanging pulse oximeter to one of his patient’s fingers. Cecil followed the man with his eyes as he strode around the bed, bent over and retrieved the ball of paper from earlier, tossing it into the waste bin along with his gloves and leaning his back against the edge of the countertop. Steve met his gaze, returning the stare for a time before his phone rang out from his pocket, causing him to jump with surprise. He answered, listened, then simply hung up, pocketing the device once again.

“You have a visitor, it seems. You know, I don’t typically allow guests before visiting hours but I think you could use some company. Fair warning, however, I need some more blood samples before noon, and I have you in for a CT scan with contrast at two thirty. Please try to get some sleep in the meantime, and if you need to get up, please bother a nurse, that’s what we pay them for, yeah?” Cecil nodded in agreement. “I’ll send your guest in shortly.” Dr. Carlsberg left the room, slipping the page from his early morning visit into Cecil’s folder and taking it with him. He greeted a passing nurse along the way down the dimly lit hallway as he nudged open a pair of double doors and strode into one of the many waiting rooms in the main gallery of the hospital. A man seated by a large window nearby rose from his seat and handed the doctor an official looking document printed on FDA letterhead, striding alongside the similarly lab-coat clad Steve when he motioned for the man to follow him.

“How’s he doing Dr. Carlsberg?” Carlos stared straight ahead as he spoke, not wanting to appear anything less than professional in the presence of the other man. Steve only chuckled and shook his head as they turned into a nearby cluster of unmanned reception desks.

“He misses you.” He rummaged around in the folder for a short while, procuring a small stack of papers, which he started to photocopy. Carlos poked around the station for a bit, mostly to hide his guilt. He felt terrible for failing to visit Cecil during the last two weeks, but with so much work to be done and so many appointments to race off to, he hardly even had time to breathe. Even if he had time, the visiting hours were pretty strict and he was so certain he would be turned away that he simply never tried, or at least that’s what he told himself to hide his guilt. He sighed quite audibly and plunked down into a nearby swivel chair. The two made idle small talk as Steve stapled the photocopied sheets together and dropped them on the counter near Carlos’s arm. Carlos selected a permanent marker from his lab coat pocket and began to censor out Cecil’s personal information from each of the pages, his breath catching in his chest as he reached the photos of his boyfriend’s mutilated body.

“I know it’s early, Dr. Carlsberg, but is there any way I can see him this morning?”

“A little bird told me you stopped by, so I already told him to expect someone, but whether or not that actually happens is dependent on one condition.” Steve locked eyes with him, making him feel somewhat intimidated by the intensity. “Only Carlos can go in there right now. Dr. Mendoza the superhero FDA agent stays outside today, understand? He needs someone who can sympathize with him right now, not all this BS.” He motioned at the paperwork with a dismissive wave.

“I think I can manage that, Steve. I’m sick of it all too, right about now.” He rose from the office chair and walked out of the building into the brisk morning air. He deposited both the files and his cell phone into a messenger bag on the floor of the passenger side of his car, and retrieved a small, black duffel bag from the rear of the vehicle, returning once again to the warm, open space of the hospital.


	2. Visitor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The fluff continues as our scientist visits our radio host for the first time in two weeks.

Cecil tried to sit still as he waited in his gradually brightening room, failing miserably. At first he sat like a good patient, his legs straight out in front of him, his hands in his blanketed lap. After simply sitting and staring at the door only to be greeted with silence, he gave up the act and sat on the edge of the bed closer to the window, dangling his legs above the floor. He ran his hands through his hair and straightened his shirt, yearning for the company of his mystery guest in the boring room, or a shower at the very least. He tried not to feel sorry for himself during his stay; sometimes people were just busy, and couldn’t be expected to drop everything they were doing to come visit him, he knew that. His thought was cut short by a quiet, almost shy knock on his door, followed by the faint click of latch as the door opened. His eyes widened and his sullen expression disappeared entirely as Cecil stared in surprise at the visitor.

“Carlos! Oh my god! It’s you!” Cecil leapt from his bed and made to run at his perfect scientist, but his drugged, sluggish body only crumpled to the cold linoleum floor in an awkward heap. Carlos was at his side in an instant, tossing his bag on the window seat and scooping the unfortunate man up into his arms, looking him over for injuries. His concern gave way to laughter as Cecil showered his exploring arms and fingers in kisses, giggling uncontrollably as tears of unadulterated joy welled up in his eyes. He did little to conceal them as he clung to his beloved right there on the floor.

“Hey there, beautiful.” Carlos removed his glasses and pressed his forehead to Cecil’s, staying the hyperactive onslaught with a hand on the back of his head, looking into the man’s deep, beautiful and tear filled eyes. They both laughed on, rubbing their noses together and ruffling each others’ hair, confirming each others’ existence with the contact. Before too long, Carlos managed to convince Cecil to release him and return to his seat on the bed while he excitedly rummaged in the duffel, pulling from it, among other items, a clean, folded set of clothes. He unclipped Cecil’s finger and pinched his IV line off with one of the clips along its length, disconnecting it properly so the man could change. He allowed the man to hold on to him for support while he busied himself with collecting the dirty clothes as Cecil cast them off and placing them in a collection bag with the other pairs Cecil had managed to bribe various people to acquire for him over the last couple of weeks. He snuck idle glances at Cecil’s naked form, blushing and looking away embarrassedly with a smile as Cecil would notice and scold him playfully. When he was finally ready for the new shirt, Carlos faced him and stepped in close, pulling it over his head and trapping his arms with the rest of the shirt before pulling himself in between Cecil’s gently swinging legs

“This one’s not mine.” Cecil stated the fact plainly, to nobody in particular.

“It is now. It was one of my favorites, but I like it so much more on you.” He pulled the shirt down Cecil’s body as he snaked his arms through their respective holes. The garment was much too large for either man, and Carlos could not remember for the life of him where he got it from in the first place, but the way the collar sat low on Cecil’s shoulders, exposing the soft flesh of his neck and collarbones, beckoning for his attentions; how the length ended right at Cecil’s mid thigh. . . the visuals flooded Carlos’s mind, but he logged them all away for ‘future study.’

“I love it.” Cecil’s smile was ever present as he examined the periodic table of elements now gracing his chest yet again. He detected a familiar scent, pressing the garment to his face and inhaling deeply. “It smells like you.” Carlos beamed at Cecil, wrapping him in his warm embrace and kissing him deeply, slowly in the morning light.

Cecil’s bed groaned out a protest to deaf ears as Carlos situated Cecil on one side, reattaching him to his line and crawling up onto the thin mattress himself, a small paperback book in one hand. The two men shared awkward giggles as they tried to get situated on the narrow surface, eventually settling in with Carlos mostly flat on his back, Cecil snuggled up tightly along his side, his chest draping  partially over the man’s flannel clad torso, head resting on the man’s shoulder and chest. He listened to Carlos’s heartbeat, reveling in the slow, constant sound while Carlos nuzzled his face in Cecil’s slightly greasy hair, his free hand now lightly holding his head to his body. The men sighed almost in unison, basking in each others’ warmth and reveling in each others’ presence.

“Oooh, you brought a book! Are you going to read to me? Is it some important study? Is it about the moon?” Cecil’s excited questioning made Carlos chuckle as he produced the thin paperback, turning the cover forward so Cecil could see it better.  Cecil read the title quizzically. “The Five Fists of Science. . .”

“I was out of town for a meeting last week when I came across it at a bookstore. I thought you might get a kick out of it, I’m not sure how the city council is with graphic novels but I haven’t been threatened yet, so I guess its fine to have.” Carlos turned the book over and let Cecil read the old style advertisement on the back aloud, much to the amusement of them both, Cecil’s sonorous voice doing perfect justice to the wild claims. He held the book and the two began to read the novel silently together, taking turns asking if it was okay to turn the page as they followed the daring fictional adventures of Mark Twain, Nikola Tesla and company. Eventually Cecil stopped asking if he could turn the pages, and Carlos set the book down on the floor, hugging the sleeping man to him tighter and smiling contentedly. His mind felt at ease if only for that short time, and in that moment he was the closest to happy he had felt in weeks.

Carlos had begun to nod off himself as the door to the room clicked open cautiously. He shot back to full consciousness as a purple-clad nurse entered the room, holding a finger to his lips as if to shush her. She caught the closing door and gently latched it before tiptoeing over to Cecil’s monitor, mouthing a quiet “sorry, sorry” as she recorded his most recent vital information. She stared at Cecil’s sleeping form for a minute, counting his respirations and holding back laughter along with Carlos as the proud, beloved radio host  began to drool on the man’s shirt and mumble fragments of words. She leaned down and held a short, whispering introduction with Carlos, wherein she warned him she’d be back in another two hours, before again leaving as silently as possible. Cecil shifted in his arms and buried his head further into Carlos’s shoulder when he planted a gentle kiss on his forehead, and before long both men were sleeping deeply, sunlight from the window flowing over their still forms and blanketing them in its gentle heat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The graphic novel mentioned in this chapter, The Five Fists of Science, is actually a thing that exists. It's from Image comics and it's pretty great.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! Thank you for taking the time to read my fics! I hope you enjoyed them, but if you didn't, that's okay too! I'd love to hear from you either way if you have the time! Thanks so much!


End file.
